Page 29 of Mated to Four Bears

His cheeks shone red and he got in my face. “You don’t know anything about me, Samantha. You don’t have a clue. You left me high and dry; you fucked me up. So, you have no idea what I have become.”

The man had become unhinged. This was worse than I thought. I wasn’t sure there was anything I could do to reason with him. Why couldn’t anyone else see what was going on here? Why was I the only one who could see how insane this was?

“The worst thing you have done to fuck me up is moving on.” Finally, he moved away from me, allowing me to breathe a little easier. But only a little bit. “Moving on and finding love with those wealthy Osborne bastards. Even being fate bonded to them.”

“What?” I gasped in shock. “What are you talking about?”

I had been hoping that was the truth. How the hell had Antonio gotten that information before me? And why did I feel like he was going to use it against me? Fear flowed violently through my veins; I was so scared. For them, not for me. I didn’t want any of the Osbornes to get hurt again.

“You don’t know?” Antonio laughed mirthlessly. He sounded absolutely furious with me. “Well, luckily, I have people working with me who can pick up on this stuff, even if you can’t. My magical neighbor saw it from miles away. She thought it would destroy me when she first told me, but I just saw the benefits.”

“B-benefits?” Great, now he had me stammering like a fool.

“Like I said, Samantha. I don’t just wantyourmagic. Oh, no, I want so much more.”

I couldn’t quite process what was being said to me here. The Osborne brothers weren’t magic, they were shifters. So how the hell would that benefit Antonio? What was he trying to do? He really had lost his mind.

“Now, I know what you’re thinking. Because I know you, Samantha, and you areverypredictable. You see only inside the box; you can’t ever see the bigger picture. I was the same way in college.” He scoffed as if that was so long ago and he was such a different man now. “But, Samantha, I don’t want you to worry about the lack of magic inside your shifter buddies. It isn’t that I need so much. Although it would be pretty cool to turn in to a bear…” He paused thoughtfully for a moment, making my stomach churn. “Anyway, I don’t need that. I need the amplification from them. They make your magic that much more powerful now that you’re fate bonded. I need that if I’m to become the best.”

Fuck, I hadn’t even thought of that. No wonder Antonio had my wand far away from me. He knew that if I could get my hands on that, he’d be screwed. If my magic really was amplified now, he wouldn’t stand a chance against me.

I desperately wished I could reach out and grab it from him. I could actually see my wand, just a little bit. It was there, taunting me, tormenting me.

“Don’t worry, precious, Samantha.” He laughed, dragging my attention back to his eyes once more. Not that I really wanted to look at him. “Your beasts will be here soon. If you don’t make it, you’ll have had one last look at them. That’s kind of me, right? I don’t have to do that for you.”

God, he was a piece of shit. How could someone be so disgusting? I wanted to scream my anger at Antonio, but I also wanted to cry out to the Osbornes to tell them not to come.

Antonio seemed to sense the tide was turning, and he bound my mouth once more. He was done toying with me. He didn’t care anymore; he didn’t want to hear what I had to say.

Everyone stiffened all at once, the other magical people sensing something if I couldn’t for some reason. I tried to see what was happening, but I suppose I didn’t really need to because deep down I knew. The Osbornes were here. Somehow, they had found me, and they had come to rescue me, to be my heroes.

My heart sunk. They weren’t going to be able to save me, they didn’t stand a chance in hell if Antonio was ready for them. It was too late. Of course, I wanted to see William, Thomas, Richard, and Henry again, but not like this. I didn’t want it to be the last time I saw them.

A tear started to leak down my cheek. This was the moment I might lose it all…

20

THOMAS

The air grew thicker the closer we got to this stupid well. It wasn’t the fog that we experienced atGrayson’s Farm, but it was bad enough. We kept pushing forward, determined to get to Samantha. She was everything that we needed.

We all stopped when we spotted the crowd of magic people surrounding a pile of bricks, under a woman floating in the sky, held up by magic. No, not just a woman. Samantha. My heart stopped beating. There she was, the woman I loved—the woman all of us loved—and she was being tortured by these horrible people.

We charged into the crowd without a plan, ready for round two. If the last battle was designed to hold us off, it hadn’t worked. But if it was to tire us out, Antonio had been successful. That fight was brutal and wore us all down. Especially Henry. I wasn’t sure if we had a chance, but we were going to have to fight. We didn’t have any other option, we had to fight for Samantha.

“There they are!” Antonio yelled. “It’s time.”

Magic blasts shot around us, but it didn’t look like they were actually designed to hit. This was all just a ruse.

Henry was already lashing out, slamming into magical people before they could shoot any more spells, doing what he could to tear them apart. Richard was trying his best to get to Samantha, but there were way too many people in his way. Antonio’s puppets had obviously been told to keep us away. William only had one target in his mind—Antonio. Everyone else might as well have been non-existent, but they were still going after him.

Shit, I needed to ensure he got to Antonio. I was the only one seeing things clearly at the moment. They were all too blind with rage.

I fought anyone and everyone who tried to come at William, leaving blood and carnage in my wake. It went against my work and everything I had done my whole life. I was a healer, not someone who harmed, but my bear side knew how to override that if the time was right. Violence was the only answer here. It was what we were all trained for.

The Osbornes were important in this city because we upheld the Code of Magic with our work, even if that meant doing something we wouldn’t usually do.

I gave in to my bear side, barely even noticing when blood spilled over my face, staining my fur, but I didn’t care.

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